dswinder.com

And I'm off!

I’m currently sitting in Amsterdam, waiting on my connection to Entebbe.

I said I would have a couple of posts the other day, but it didn’t happen. Desole.

I was considering and even began setting up a separate blog for my time in Uganda, this summer, but I decided that was foolish, so anything I post will be right here for the time being. That being said, posts will be quite sporadic as internet will be spotty. I’ll be able to do posts through text, but Tumblr only allows one text pages worth per post.

So, look for tweets. You can follow me @dswinder or check the sidebar or both.

I won’t be retweeting or posting news stories that often, but I plan to do my best to keep a decent feed going.

Anyway, my internet time is running out, and I’m not paying another 12€.

Poverty is not a human rights violation -- Aid Watch

This is a great post by Bill Easterly, of White Man’s Burden fame, over at his blog, “Aid Watch”. It deals with the problems faced when attempting to lump poverty and human rights together, as Amnesty International has done in its 2009 report. It slows down the solutions to both.

Chris Blattman also touches on this here.

P.S. I should have a post or two more going up today before I leave for Uganda tomorrow and they become much more sporadic.

It appears that Educate!, which I’ve talked so much about, is getting some much deserved national recognition.

Educate!’s founder, Eric Glustrom (who founded the organization when he was only 17-years old), will be on the CBS Early Show, tomorrow morning.

Congrats to Eric and everyone at Educate!.

Also, be sure to check out what Educate! is all about, and if you like what you see, remember to vote for Eric to win a $100,000 prize from DoSomething.org to go towards the new initiative being implemented by Educate!.

Go here. Click the vote tab. Find Eric’s video. Click the thumbs up.

“ This week, it is time for young artists of Goma to EXPRESS themselves. They are drawers, painters, musicians, dancers, and they have decided, through their art, to spread the word about the war that is ravaging their country.

—

Voices of the youth from Eastern Congo: “EXPRESS” — Condition: Critical

This is a very well-done video about the role music and the arts plays as a form of expression in eastern DRC.

It’s a bit dramatic, but still well-done.

It’s also quite relevant to the Jazz for Justice Project.

I know I’ve mentioned Educate! a few times, and there’s good reason. Educate! is an awesome organization using culturally relevant social enterprise projects to empower students in Uganda to be leaders for their community. You can check out what I’ve said about them before, here.

Well, I’m mentioning them again because, now, Eric, the founder, is up for a $100,000 reward from DoSomething.org to go towards Educate!’s goal empowering a new generation of social leaders.

All I’m asking is that you check out more of what Educate! is all about. If you feel like they’re doing good work, vote for them. If not, don’t.

I mean, it should count for something that I’m so behind them as an organization. I think I’ve made it pretty clear how vocally critical I can be of many members of civil society. I’m looking at you, IC.

Go here. Click the vote tab. Find Eric’s video. Click the thumbs up.

Uganda: Police Deploy More Traffic Officers

My favorite line is:

He explained that the deployment was made after the Police realised that some drivers do not respect traffic laws when they are out of the city centre.

Am I to assume that Kampala police think that motorists obey traffic laws within the city center? Have they been to the middle of Kampala? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer to that question is no… You know, seeing as traffic laws aren’t properly enforced in the city center.

News and Notes 5/25 - 5/31

Cross-posted from KnoxJazzforJustice.org:

As of late, there has been a flurry of pertinent stories and happenings in relation to the Jazz for Justice Project.

-Jazz for Justice received some surprising publicity last week when a photo of Rose, a child-mother in northern Uganda, appeared in Newsweek. In the magazine, Rose is seen receiving a prosthetic arm while a donning a yellow Jazz for Justice t-shirt. The University of Tennessee web site covered the unexpected publicity.

-Also occurring last week, a new piece of legislation was introduced in Washington that “requires the Obama administration within six months to come up with a strategy to address LRA violence, and protect civilians from future attacks and also assist communities that have been displaced by LRA attacks with $10 million in emergency humanitarian assistance.” Resolve Uganda Senior Policy Analyst Paul Ronan discusses the proposed bill with Voice of America.

-The World Bank approved a $100 million credit to go towards the PRDP (Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda). The PRDP aims to assist northern Uganda in recovering from the over-twenty-year war and close the development gap between the north and the rest of the country.

-Despite calls from the U.S. and various human rights groups, the Ugandan army says they have no intentions of embarking on a second offensive against the LRA in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This statement was made around the same time as new LRA attacks in DRC displaced 12,000 more Congolese civilians.

-Uganda has warned former LRA combatants against renewing the war in northern Uganda. This comes on the heels of reports that two former LRA commanders have been meeting with former rebels in Gulu.

-The United Nations has commited $12 million in assistance to the 200,000 people uprooted by LRA attacks in eastern DRC.

-The SOS Children’s Village has finally opened in Gulu nearly two years since the project went underway.

-The New Vision ran a piece on the difficulties faced by child-mothers when returning to their families in northern Uganda.

-Jazz for Justice’s Lindsay McClain arrived in Uganda last week. You can keep up with her trip here. Next week, both Dustyn Winder and Erin Cagney will arrive in Uganda to begin their projects for the summer. You can go here to find out more about what all three of them will be working on while in Uganda.

Be on the lookout this week for a new page here on the Jazz for Justice web site compiling various examples of music-related projects, and remember that you can find similar art projects on the new Art-Related Projects page.

I’ve been on vacation for the past week — w/o wifi for most of the time. I’ve tried to tweet and RT good content when connected. Sidebar.

Uganda MPs recommend slashing ARV budget allocation - IRIN

To say ”We recognise that HIV is a serious disease but it is not the only disease affecting Ugandans,” as chair of the house standing committee Rose Akol Okullo has is an absolute cop-out and unacceptable.

In addition to the large defense fund that the article discusses, earlier this year, Uganda spent 88.2 billion shillings on a new Gulfstream for President Museveni. Yet, somehow, Uganda wants to cut funding on ARV’s to address other health concerns. I guess it would be completely unreasonable to cut the flippant spending on things like new jets.

I mean, Museveni’s old jet wasn’t good enough for him? It sure was sufficient enough in 2003 to fly his daughter to Germany for the birth of her child — At an estimated cost to Uganda of £70,000, at the high end, and £20,000, at the low.

Museveni is a darling of the United States and the West, literally getting away with murder. The legislation on Uganda and the U.S. involvement is concentrated on ridding the world of the LRA, completely forgetting that the UPDF also abducted children. The UPDF also raped, looted and killed. And the UPDF is still responsible for the displacement camps that people still live in, today.

Yeah, that’s right, the IDP camps weren’t a choice. Either you moved in or were considered amongst the ranks of the LRA, and, according to the government, thus… guilty.

Of course, then people were corralled up for the LRA to come through with warnings of anyone left in the camps the next day are considered government sympathizers and, according to the LRA, thus… guilty.

But all of this is ignored by the governments of the Western world. Mugabe is the hot word because he’s sat atop a country for a ridiculous 29 years, but Museveni is still a-OK ruling a country and marginalizing a region for 23.

It’s time that we realize that one of the biggest threats facing Uganda is Yoweri Museveni. He’s not a darling. He’s a tyrant. It’s time to hold the Ugandan government accountable for their actions. This latest proposal to cut ARV funding is just the most recent in a long line of irresponsible moves when dealing with the lives of people, and it is unacceptable.

Witch Hunts and Foul Potions Heighten Fear of Leader in Gambia - NYT

I know nothing of Gambia, and it’s very rare that I see anything written about it in international headlines, but after reading this story, I need to read deeper. What’s described in this article are massive human rights violations. President Jammeh is mad, and yet it’s rare to hear anything about he or the country he rules over.